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The most recent 60 of 107 articles we hold from Defence Connect.
Counter-drone technology firm DroneShield has opened an Adelaide R&D hub, growing its national engineering footprint; South Australia's defence industries minister marked the occasion.
A South Australian munitions maker and a counter-drone firm have signed an MOU to combine their technologies after a successful blast test, with exports to Ukraine planned for 2027.
Drone maker SYPAQ Systems has won regulator approval to self-authorise beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights across Australia; the piece also recalls its Corvo X system entering service under the Australian Army's DEF129 program.
Queensland's government has granted Aviation Australia $3 million from its Sovereign Industry Development Fund to build a Townsville training centre with simulation equipment for future defence aviation maintenance engineers.
Defence tech firm Q-CTRL reports a first-at-sea trial navigating a vessel with no satellite positioning, using a quantum gravity sensor hardened by software, reaching nautical-mile accuracy and extending its navigation product line.
A $190,000 DaRT grant from Defence West's science centre will fund a joint UXMachines and University of Western Australia project on low-cost optical sensors for spotting and tracking drones.
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Seitec, a Canberra defence technology maker, has landed a $4 million round with ACTivate Capital leading and Beaten Zone Venture Partners and UNSW participating, funding overseas expansion, product development and hiring.
Also Startup Daily
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Newcastle battery firm 3ME Technology will show its EdgeVOLT portable power system to the US Defense Innovation Unit under a prototyping effort, with a low-temperature version built on South 8 cells, advancing AUKUS cooperation.
A Perth-based maker of military drones has lodged listing paperwork with the corporate regulator ahead of a planned sharemarket float; its current Defence Force munitions contract is worth $24.2 million.
Hanwha's US subsidiary has made an indicative offer of US$1.05–1.20 billion for Austal's American business; the target's board approved a four-week due diligence window, with the proposal excluding its home-market operations.
Queensland's government will grant over $500,000 to Gold Coast armour maker Craig International Ballistics from its Sovereign Industry Development Fund, expanding hard armour plate output and creating 47 jobs by late 2027.
MILLIBEAM, an Australian deep-tech firm, has revealed Rakurai, a portable counter-drone device built on bespoke chip-level radiofrequency design; the piece notes prior Commonwealth grants behind its semiconductor technology.
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Queensland's government has committed $7.5 million from its Sovereign Industry Development Fund to Black Sky Aerospace for a defence testing and evaluation launch site near Thargomindah, expected operational by mid-2028.
The federal government is paying Electro Optic Systems $5.7 million under a Mission Syracuse contract to mature its R400 Slinger counter-drone weapon system, adding to earlier backing of AIM Defence and SYPAQ.
MAKO, previously MicroTau, has closed a $28 million Series A led by Virescent Ventures to scale its friction-cutting aviation film, with airline and defence customers and certification work underway.
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Passive radar maker Silentium Defence has passed 100 staff and hired Matthew Ratnesar as US expansion CEO and Sam Macmillan as CFO, while co-founder Simon Palumbo returns to drive allied-market growth from South Australia.
Gilmour Space Technologies has appointed ex-NASA deputy administrator and astronaut Pamela Melroy to its board, a move the company says strengthens Australia's sovereign defence space capability.
Counter-drone maker DroneShield has appointed retired Rear Admiral Lee Goddard as an independent non-executive director, citing his decades of defence leadership and board experience.
Counter-drone firm DroneShield has begun European production of its systems, a milestone unveiled at a Paris defence showcase, as the company also maintains Australian manufacturing and a new Amsterdam regional hub.
Norship has received a $5.37 million grant from Queensland's Sovereign Industry Development Fund to enlarge its defence-certified Cairns shipyard, a project already under construction and due to finish in early 2028.
Boresight, a Canberra-based maker of target drones for counter-drone training, has begun trading on the ASX after an $8 million IPO, with funds set to lift production and US manufacturing.
Aurora Labs says a $1m government grant, matched by its own $1m, will fund a large-format metal 3D printer to scale production of its micro gas turbine propulsion systems for defence applications.
Also asiapacificdefencereporter.com·australianmanufacturing.com.au·manmonthly.com.au
Seven Western Australian defence businesses have received state government grants of as much as $100,000 each to prepare for work in AUKUS supply chains.
Defence firm Electro Optic Systems is buying European counter-drone software maker MARSS, taking ownership of its battle-tested NiDAR platform as it shifts toward fully integrated drone-defence systems.
Also edisongroup.com·grafa.com
Space firm Spiral Blue teams with Arlula, whose Sales Engine platform will distribute data from its planned Teal LiDAR satellite constellation; the article recalls a $3 million CRC-P grant the company secured earlier this year.
US buyout firm Artemis has offloaded its portfolio company Sightline Intelligence to Acron Technologies; the piece also recalls the target's earlier purchase of Australian defence AI firm Athena AI and notes its Brisbane base.
Boresight, a defence tech firm whose drones support counter-drone training, has lodged an ASX float to fund manufacturing expansion at home and in the United States.
Defence Connect reports Canberra's counter-drone funding plan, with initial contracts awarded to AIM Defence for its Fractl laser and SYPAQ Systems for an interceptor drone under the Mission Syracuse initiative.
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Germany's Mehler Systems has signed an agreement to take a major stake in Queensland ballistic protection maker Craig International Ballistics, pending foreign investment approval, gaining Asia-Pacific reach and Australian Defence Force relationships.
Australian quantum sensing startup Deteqt has secured $5 million in seed backing, with Main Sequence leading, to advance its chip-scale magnetometer after a device was reportedly used in a US rescue mission in Iran.
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DroneShield's long-serving chief executive Oleg Vornik is departing, with technology chief Angus Bean promoted to lead; chairman Peter James is retiring and Hamish McLennan arrives as incoming chair from May.
A Sydney defence and space technology company has completed an oversubscribed funding round led by Paspalis Capital to expand its satellite data coordination platform and grow its engineering team.
Retired Major General Andrew Bottrell has joined defence company Aurora Labs as a non-executive director, bringing senior military and acquisition experience; he also founded Rockpool Partners and holds an academic chair at Deakin University.
HEO and UNSW Canberra Space have performed Australia's first propelled satellite rendezvous manoeuvre with the Continuum-1 spacecraft, a Defence Trailblazer-funded effort advancing sovereign space domain awareness skills.
South Australian hollow-core fibre navigation project by Adelaide University, Northrop Grumman Australia and Norseld won almost half a million dollars in federal Ignite grant funding, adding to earlier Defence Trailblazer support.
Defence Connect reports Terram Astra has opened a US$10m seed round to build ground-based hubs for secure satellite links and orbital-debris tracking, positioning the venture for a larger round in 2027.
Sydney and Austin-based defence tech startup Breaker secured $9 million at seed stage, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with Main Sequence following on, after a voice-controlled autonomous systems demo in Rheinmetall's Boxer vehicle.
Also Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
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Sydney directed energy startup RedTail Technology completed the Catalyst Accelerator's Colorado program, one of six small businesses in the 15th cohort, handpicked by US Air Force and Space Force, with a November demo day.
An Australian counter-drone technology developer has appointed a Singaporean defence distributor to sell its Pandion Sentinel system, its first step toward in-country sales across the Asia-Pacific region.
C2 Robotics has named Troy Duggan, a former naval platform commander, as its chief executive. The piece also describes the firm's teaming with Thales Australia and Austal Australia on undersea surveillance.
Advanced Navigation has hired Michelle Toscan to lead its Asia-Pacific operations, tasking her with defence and government engagement as the navigation systems maker supplies primes including Rheinmetall and Boeing.
University–government partnership Defence Trailblazer showcases the clean, low-emission defence projects it is funding with industry, plus ventures developed through its entrepreneurship readiness program.
Also Startup Daily
US investor David Fox has taken a board seat at Australian autonomous boat builder Ocius, which he backed early and served as a director in the 2000s.
Sydney navigation technology firm Advanced Navigation is opening new centres in the UK, Europe and the US to meet demand for GPS-denied navigation systems, after launching its Boreas 50 product.
Q-CTRL won two DARPA contracts worth $38 million to develop quantum navigation sensors, with Lockheed Martin subcontracting; the pair earlier received a Defense Innovation Unit prototyping award.
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H&B Defence will run nuclear propulsion training courses for Western Australian defence industry from next year, backed by a WA government reskilling grant and input from partners HII and Babcock.
Defence's innovation accelerator has awarded three more contracts under its emerging and disruptive technologies program, funding quantum and information-warfare work at CSIRO, four universities and Silicon Quantum Computing, adding $9 million to the program.
Visionary Machines has won a 4.4 million dollar government grant, matched by its investors toward an 8.75 million dollar project, to speed commercialisation and Sydney manufacturing of its Pandion counter-drone sensing system.
Australian-owned defence business Aurizn has hired Rebecca Humble from QinetiQ Australia as chief executive. Her appointment comes as the Pemba Capital Partners-backed company pushes to grow its defence capability work.
DroneShield has rolled out a new software-subscription counter-drone product, SentryCiv, aimed at non-military sites such as airports, utilities and prisons, offering passive airspace monitoring with no upfront hardware cost.
Gilmour Space's Eris rocket lifted off but exploded seconds later near Bowen; the founder hailed the short flight as a milestone, while its ElaraSat satellite bus flew successfully on a SpaceX rideshare mission.
Pat Conroy announced a fresh tranche of Australian defence grants totalling over $17.3 million, with recipients including Fleet Space Technologies, Veem, HIFraser and Aurora Labs.
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Gilmour Space Technologies has secured the maximum $5 million grant under the federal Industry Growth Program, money earmarked for its next-generation engine, even though its founder publicly attacked the national space regulator.
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DroneShield, a Sydney maker of counter-drone technology, has hired a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel to lead its sales to that service; the Dutch ambassador also recently visited the company.
Quantum firm Q-CTRL ran a shipboard trial of its quantum navigation sensor on a Royal Australian Navy vessel, operating 144 hours unattended and showing GPS-independent positioning, with results validated in a journal.
Cyber security firm archTIS has secured $7.5 million via a share placement to fund its US push, partnerships and product development, with Henslow and Canaccord Genuity jointly leading the offer.
Also ARN (ARNnet)
Additive manufacturer Aurora Labs has been awarded a $544,333 defence grant, matched by its own investment, to buy equipment that expands local output of small gas turbine engines for unmanned aircraft.
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Five Australian defence startups graduated from Defence Trailblazer's High Growth Incubation stage, the final step of its DINAMIC pathway, with each company receiving grant support of as much as $150,000.
Trump's NASA nominee Jared Isaacman told a Senate hearing he supports pursuing both lunar and Mars missions, easing doubts about Artemis, while Australia's chosen rover consortium ELO2 moves forward.
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Deals recorded from Defence Connect's coverage. A round is listed once, however many of their articles mention it.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UXMachines | Grant | 29 Aug 2026 | $190k | |
| Seitec | Seed | 17 Aug 2026 | $4m | |
| Mako | Series A | 4 Aug 2026 | $28m | |
| Breaker | Seed | 4 Aug 2026 | $9m | |
| Deteqt | Seed | 4 Aug 2026 | $5m | |
| Aurora Labs | Grant | 2 Jul 2026 | $1m | |
| SYPAQ Systems | Accelerator | 21 Apr 2026 | - | |
| Aimdefence | Accelerator | 21 Apr 2026 | - | |
| SYPAQ Systems | Grant | 21 Apr 2026 | $10.4m | |
| Aimdefence | Grant | 21 Apr 2026 | $21.3m | |
| Arlula | Unnamed stage | 24 Mar 2026 | $3.4m | |
| Ocius | Grant | 11 Mar 2026 | $176m | |
| Terram Astra | Seed | 17 Feb 2026 | $14.1m | |
| Q-CTRL | Grant | 28 Aug 2025 | $38m | |
| Aurora Labs | Grant | 25 Jul 2025 | $544k | |
| Veem | Grant | 25 Jul 2025 | $2m | |
| archTIS Limited | Unnamed stage | 7 Jul 2025 | $7.5m | |
| Ghost Fire Systems | Accelerator | 27 May 2025 | - | |
| Breaker | Pre-seed | 14 Mar 2025 | $2m | |
| Gilmour Space | Series D+ | 19 Feb 2024 | $55m | |
| ELO2 | Grant | 2024 | $4m | |
| AROSE | Grant | 21 Mar 2023 | $4m | |
| Millibeam | Grant | 2022 | $2.1m |
Companies named in Defence Connect's articles, most-covered first.
Investors named in Defence Connect's articles, most-covered first.